A Framework to Simplify Usability Analysis of Constraint Solvers.

Currently, given the complexity of industrial problems, a powerful software is required to solve Constraint Satisfaction Problems. The constraint solvers are a kind of software that are based on a constraint approach. During the last years many constraint solvers have been created, some of them are intricate software and others are libraries to extend the features of a programming language. There are few efforts to have a framework that allows to compare a constraint system and less to allow the usability analysis of the solvers. In most cases, the users of these systems are more concerned about the number of enumeration and propagation strategies that can be used instead of the ease of use of constraint solvers. This paper presents a framework to compare and obtain a simple and objective analysis of the usability of these kind of systems. The paper shows that it is possible to establish comparison in terms of usability, allowing an analysis beyond the simple comparison of their internal strategies.